IMPACT OF BEACH BOYS ON TOURISM: A STUDY OF INDURUWA, SRI LANKA

Abstract

The direct and indirect dependents of tourism became a powerful and a forcible sector of the tourism industry. Beach boys are a group that depends upon tourists who impose both positive and negative impacts to the tourist industry as well as to the society. Therefore, it is essential to identify the impacts imposed by the beach boys as tourism service providers on tourism industry. In this research, the researcher investigated the impacts and threats of beach boys to the society while giving suggestions to bring them to a formal stream. This is a qualitative research which used in-depth interview and observation analysis as data collection methods. The researcher used non-probabilistic, convenience sampling method for selection of the samples from beach boys, tourists, locals, traders and industry experts to collect information. It reveals the impact of beach boys from various stakeholder perspectives such as customers’ perspective, society’s perspective and the beach boys’ perspective. The research revealed that most tourists like to obtain beach boys’ service as it is cheap and easily available. However, tourists from some European countries are highly afraid of beach boys in Induruwa area while some other tourists perceive them as friends.

Key Words: Beach Boys, Tourism Industry, Stakeholder

For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk